Congratulations Graduate!!

Eric officially graduated April 23-24 from BYU. Though he finished his course work in December. It's been wonderful not to feel guilty anymore when I hand Miriam over as soon as he walks in the door. :) My mom came down for the occasion. Thur before commencement several of Eric's family got together at Los Tres Amigos (one of Eric's favorite restaurants) to celebrate the occasion. We got up there a little late so mom and I couldn't find any of the nice seats together. Mom ended up running after Miriam the whole time because of course she wasn't interested in sitting at all. Thanks Mom for running till you wanted to fall over!

The speakers were Pres Uchtdorf and Elder Nelson. It was an excellent meeting. Pres Uchtdorf talked about 3 things to help graduates such as prioritizing what we do and keeping close to the Spirit. Afterwards we wandered all over and took many pictures. Somehow we don't have many of just Eric, Miriam manged to get in most of them. ;) It was a great but exhausting day.

Friday was the individual commemoration. Once again we got there later than wanted and were up in the bleachers and once again mom was chasing Miriam around through the whole thing. Eric's mom made it in time to see him receive his diploma. The speaker was an exec from HP and a convert so it was interesting to see her perspective from hiring and how she viewed BYU. She said they have a lot going for them from superior technical training, to leadership skills that others don't always have. Afterwards we took a few more pictures and finished up with lunch as La Dulce Vita.

Happy Easter!

Easter sort of snuck up on us this year. I decorated for it like the day before. Also Eric and I usually tell the stories of the Savior's last week with pictures leading up to it- we only did Sun and Mon. I did find some cute bunny outfits for Miriam to wear. We got the eggs boiled Sat morning, but between going up to the Jones party and doing birthday things we didn't color the eggs till Tue night. Miriam had a great time helping color including dumping the cup of red dye all over my lap!

We did go to Marshall and Melissa's for an egg hunt and a nice dinner. Miriam spent the majority of the time going up and down their stairs. She didn't quite get the egg hunting, but managed to find a couple of eggs and then she got good at stealing others candy.

We came home and bathed her. Then we exchanged Easter baskets so Sun could be the spiritual day. Miriam got Easter surprise house from Gma Delta that she loves. She always sings and dances to the music, I have a cute video but can't get it to upload perhaps Eric can help later. We found some organic Easter treats for Miriam and I that we love. My mom gave her a sand bucket, crayons, bubbles, a family of pink ducks, Easter board book, bunny ears, and a pink stuff bunny. Eric got Emperor's New Groove and I gave a wind up boat and animal puzzle that makes sounds. She had a good time.
Sunday was a pretty quiet day. We mostly just went to church. Miriam had a beautiful Easter dress from my mom and I sang with a women's chorus in Sacrament meeting.

Happy Birthday Jessica!

I find it highly ironic that Miriam was born on Easter last year and this year my birthday is the day before Easter. It was an interesting birthday. My mom came down for basically 2 weeks though she also came to see my Aunt Gloria who was down from Alaska to visit her 2 girls here. It is always nice to have another person around during the day instead of just Miriam and I. She helped with dinners and washing Miriam's clothes, yeah! Friday night she made my special birthday dinner and this year I tried something new- manicotti. It was good esp with our deluxe salad and garlic bread. After dinner we went and played games at my cousin Stephanie's house w/all my relatives in Provo.
Saturday (after sleeping in from the late night) Eric made my traditional birthday breakfast of strawberry ice cream waffles. Then Eric, Miriam, and I went to find flowers for the dance we attended that night, the BYU Traditions Ball, an alumni event. We walked down the street to Steiner's and the clerk there was the biggest witch because I hadn't ordered the boutonniere and corsage earlier and they were closing in 40 min. She was awful and it was a rip off, we're NEVER shopping there again. On the positive side my mom got me pretty birthday balloons.

As mentioned Eric and I went to the Traditions Ball Sat night which didn't go quite as planned the dance was from 8-11 and we had a hard time getting all gussied up and Miriam to bed so we got pictures and the last dance. Ah well, we're looking at making this a tradition and we'll figure out how to do it better. Finally, we did cake on Sunday and the baby is for being pregnant which I realized this is my first birthday to be so. Thanks mom for the yummy cake!

New Milestones

Miriam is always reaching for new heights of Independence. She wants to walk everywhere by herself and on and on. This week when Eric and I went out for our weekly lunch date we ordered from the kids menu for the first time. We got her a grilled cheese sandwich dunker w/fries. They didn't bring the ranch to dunk in thinking she was too little, but she loves dunking and copying the big people. As soon as they brought she immediately dunked the sandwich in. That was the only time for the bread, but she enjoyed dipping the fries in it creating a white face. She even colored a tiny bit, she's just figuring out /getting interested in coloring (guess I doubly get to watch what writing utensils she has access too).

Our other milestone is this morning when Eric was holding her upside down he noticed a pearly bud on top. She's finally getting another tooth!! Yay! All my friends babies of similar age seem to have lots more teeth than her and I was getting worried. So tooth #3 is on its way.

Also this week on Tue Miriam had the first time experience of sharing her toys and she wasn't thrilled. Last minute we babysat her cousin Myles while his mom and brother went to the Dr and dentist. Myles is only 11 months older than Miriam so he still got along with her toys. The biggest problem is they followed around after each other and was extremely interested in whatever the other was doing. I would try and distract Miriam so he could play with whatever and within a minute he was over wanting to be involved. I'm not sure what I'll do when her brother is born!

Starting to make sense

Miriam is starting to make a little more sense, although the majority is still babble. Her babbling is constant when she's around people she knows and her volume control is getting stuck on loud more and more often. Her first word besides mama and daddy was dog back in the beginning of Feb and since then we couldn't really distinguish for sure anything. She is adding kitty and duck/quack to her vocabulary. Mind you there are other times that it sounds pretty clear for grandma, hi, yellow and such we're just not sure that it is purposeful. So though she has been speedy development in her moter skill, communication has been slower.

Tender Moments

As anyone knows who has little ones many days are hectic and frustrating as they get into things or are whiny, etc. Then every so often comes these tender moments that are pay off for moms that fill your heart. Miriam has been doing a great job of giving hugs lately. One of those tender moments that fill my heart with love happened last night at 1:30 (which wasn't a great time esp since it seems to becoming a habit). She woke up, I think from a bad dream, and when I went in to get her and comfort her she wrapped her arms around my neck and tucked her head into my shoulder. I decided to bring her to bed to cuddle with her. Ahh the moments that make motherhood worthwhile.